Me with Mohammadou, Nana Kenieba, January 3, 2000 (photo by Nick Reich) From December 28, 1999 to March 6, 2000 I lived in Bamako, the capital of the West African nation of Mali. I was participating in the Carleton College Mali program led by Professor Cherif Keita, and lived with a host family. Eighteen other students were on the program as well, and we took classes in Bambara (the language spoken by 80% of the population), Malian literature, and Malian film. We traveled most weekends to visit other parts of the vast country, such as Segou, Sikasso, Djenne, Mopti, and the Pays Dogon. This photo-essay grew out of my desire to share my experience with others: the country and the people there had a profound effect on me, and changed the direction of my life. As a photographer I know that images can communicate powerful messages, but if viewed on their own, out of context, they can exoticize the subject and mislead the viewer. Words give photographs that context and depth. I hope that each of you comes away from this work with an sense of incompleteness: my goal is not to detail my experience as I lived it, but to offer up bits and pieces of the most important parts, so as to encourage you to go out and discover the rest for yourselves. I recommend starting at the beginning and continuing until the end, but this is the table of contents: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25
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